Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Right, so if it turned out to come from the future or 10 billion years ago on that scale, then it's likely extraterrestrial.

As you say though, it's not good in the billions.




You're not getting it. You can't date anything non-biological using carbon dating. It's not that you get the wrong answer. You get no answer, since you don't know a-priori what the ratio of C12 to C14 was when the sample was formed. The equations are under-constrained.

You can still use radiological dating with other elements (e.g. Uranium).

>if it turned out to come from the future

I don't even…


Difficult to get what was not said in the comment I'm replying to. So fine, I don't know my dating techniques. Uranium radiological dating sounds fine. Why not that?

>> if it turned out to come from the future

> I don't even…

have a sense of humor? It is certainly possible if we had a extra-terrestrial organic matter (which we don't) that it could test as coming from the future based on carbon ratios, though obviously it would not actually be from the future - thus "on that scale".

I'm not sure if the same applies to Uranium radiological dating.


But we don't know future carbon ratios.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: